Graze Craze

It’s the glue that holds any good party, family dinner or Tuesday girls’ night together: the charcuterie board. And if you want it expertly done? That’s where Ericka Mitchell’s Grateful Graze enters the picture.

Launched in 2019, Grateful Graze is Wilmington’s first charcuterie board business, offering customers graze boards ranging from graze-for-one (think: Lunchables) to a full graze table (think: wedding).

According to Mitchell, an average board entails charcuterie meat, cheese, and accouterments like cornichon, olives and fruits. Then there’s the dips (fig butter, pepper jelly, maybe a grainy mustard) and the bread and crackers. The goal is that customers get everything they need to make various flavor combinations using different ingredients with a touch of artistry and sans the multiple grocery runs.

“I just want to make things easy and accessible for people where they don’t have to run around to five different grocery stores to source everything,” Mitchell said. “I want to make the board so that it’s ready to be served and it’s artful.”

Mitchell’s interest in graze tables can be drawn back to her childhood when she and her father would take day trips to an Italian market. The duo would curate meats and cheeses to bring back and serve to the rest of the family (she’s the oldest of five).

Once Mitchell had moved to Wilmington and was hosting her own parties, graze plates became a signature of her home kitchen for UFC fight nights.

“It was perfect because I could go and chat with people and watch the fight and know that the graze table was taken care of and people could feed themselves without me being stuck in the kitchen,” she said.

One of Mitchell’s friends mentioned to her that maybe she could turn her hosting go-to into a business in 2019. Mitchell did her research and saw that graze tables and companies providing them were trending in Australia but hadn’t quite gained as much popularity in the US yet.

“I was like, ‘Why don’t we have these graze tables at parties?’” she said. “It’s such a cool way to entertain with food, and there wasn’t really anyone doing it yet, especially in North Carolina. That’s when I got serious about it and was like, ‘I think I could make this work’. Because charcuterie and cheese have been around forever so it’s not going to go away. People want finger foods, and hosts want to make their lives easier.”

The proof of that is in the success Mitchell has experienced since launching in 2019. For the first few years of Grateful Graze, she operated out of a commissary kitchen, sharing the facility with others to put together boards and tables for customers.

In the fall of 2023, the company had grown to the point that Mitchell felt it was time to open a brick-and-mortar store. “I wanted a space where people can come and it feels like home and they can just sit, have a graze board, chat and relax,” she said.

The environment Mitchell has created is homey with couches, sconce lighting and even art from some of the places she’s traveled. Mitchell’s eye for visually pleasing imagery doesn’t just come to life in the decor of Grateful Graze, but on the boards and tables she builds for customers.

“I was originally going to go to college for art and have just always loved it and thought I was going to be an artist,” she said. “With the boards, it’s something I taught myself over the years — things like, strawberries should be cut and displayed like this. I always think in my head when I’m building a board: color and texture balance.”

Mitchell even teaches a Cheese Board 101 class at Grateful Graze. Everything is provided for clients, and at the end of the class, everyone leaves with an assembled graze board and a lesson in how to curate the cheeses and display every element of the board aesthetically. “One thing I tell people in my class is as long as you keep in mind color texture balance, the board is going to come together.”

For Mitchell, one of the most rewarding elements of the business has been repeat customers. She has some that have been with her since 2019, and a Grateful Graze board or table has been present at milestone events from bridal showers and weddings to baby showers and anniversaries.

“It’s really humbling to be able to hear stories from my customers and be along the journey with them as they go through life,” she said.

Another perk of repeat business? Mitchell has it down to a science of what items will delight individual palettes. “I’ve tweaked it down because, at this point, I just know what my customers really enjoy,” she said. “When you get a board from me, it’s going to be crowd-pleasing.”

On the immediate horizon for Grateful Graze is the introduction of coffee service at the brick-and-mortar location.

“I’m going to go with a cafe vibe,” Mitchell said. “I want to keep expanding the business. This was the first step of having a home base, but I want to keep growing. I get a lot of joy out of this business and being able to create this food art and share it with other people.”

Grateful Graze will be featured at Feast Wilmington’s Brunch Elevated event on March 30.